Ladies and gentlemen, some listeners welcome once again. My name is Eric Nutting. I am the host of this episode.

I am the owner of the Growth Coach of St. Petersburg, Florida. And it is a pleasure as always to be here with you. I have a good friend as my guest today.

His name is Michael Wagner. In just a moment, we’re going to let him introduce himself and tell us a little bit about his life. We are recording out of Naming Creative Studios.

My buddy Jordan, as always, is keeping the sound clean and keeping us on point. So Mr. Wagner, you and I are starting to spend a lot of time together. We are.

It’s pretty awesome. It is very awesome. And you know, this is what’s funny to me.

When I speak about you to other people, I call you Wags. And I’ve never actually called you Wags to your face. That’s interesting.

So this is what I want you to do. I want you to introduce yourself to the people, tell, tell us who you are, what you do, and let’s talk about Wags a little bit. Oh, perfect.

Okay. Well, you should call me Wags. Anyway, we’ve known each other quite a long time and we do hang out an awful lot now.

It’s been awesome. Heck yeah. Well, I’m Michael Wagner.

I co own Green Oak Lending Group where a. We are a residential mortgage brokerage. We do business right here in St. Pete.

All of Florida and then also all of Michigan. We’ve been running our brokerage. My partner, David Lavolsi and I forgot about five, a little over five years now.

It’s going quite well. And since I’ve done that, I’ve also had the privilege to immerse myself in St. Pete’s community and really get involved with a lot of great networking groups and a lot of great charities and everything else. So it’s been a wild ride and it’s really shaped a different path for, for our business and goals.

Yeah, I really feel your life kind of taking shape and getting momentum and you know, I get to be a part of that with you and you get to kind of fuel me a little bit. So that part of it’s exciting. So Michael, Michael Mike Wags.

How do we get to that? How do we differentiate all this? Right, yeah, absolutely. So I’d like to speak to Michael now. Michael is Michael.

I feel like Michael is what a lot of my more senior clients call me. And it’s very respectful and I’m like, great. I’m like, kind of like a grandkid.

Even though I’m 40, I still feel it. I’m like, excellent. And, you know, Mike, I. You know, I think people call me when they first meet me just because it’s like, hey, it’s gonna call you.

Mike is Michael. Mike’s okay. Michael.

Michael. What do you prefer? And, like, my line is, well, if we’re gonna be friends, it’s Wags. It’s what everybody else calls me.

Right. So I’ve been called that since high school football, and then it’s carried over through everyone at Rocket Mortgage, everyone at United Wholesale, everyone that I know. It’s.

It’s almost like its own little brand for my personality. I don’t know. Well, that’s interesting, because as you know, as a business coach, we’re.

We’re always talking about brand and personal brand. And what is your brand? Your brand is Wags. Yeah, we’ll call you Mr. Wags.

I like it. That’s. That’s what, you know, that’s what Nora calls me.

Lexus Agaski from the law firm at Doug D. Jackson. Mr. Wags.

Mr. Wags. This is great. This is amazing.

Just Wags is fine. Yeah. For you, it’s Mr. Wags.

Mr. Wags is my father. That’s right. Because it would be.

All right. So you’ve got your very own podcast. I was a guest on it.

Thank you for letting me be. So this is really part two, in a way. Yeah.

Yeah. And your podcast is part of our SunLeaders group of shows, and it’s called Rooted in the Community. Tell us what you want from that, from that podcast, from that experience, from Rooted in the Community.

Yeah. So I’m absolutely excited that I’m doing it, and you were actually my first guest, which was extremely special. So really appreciate that.

Kind of. The idea is great. We’ve got all these small businesses, and we have all these community leaders that seem to like either maybe they’ve.

They’ve been here doing a great job for a long time, or we’ve got a lot of new folks that are starting to emerge. Right. And I kind of want to shed light on.

On these small businesses and at the same time, what they’ve done for the networking groups, Chamber, whatever they may be involved in, taking somebody from each of those groups and then just kind of shedding light on how to survive, how to thrive, how to make it down here in St. Pete. The groups that are available to you, because there is so much available. Like, I’m having Liam Arrington on my podcast, actually, right after we show.

Right. That’ll be the third show. So he started a networking group about, I want to say, eight months ago.

Socialize and strategize. Socialize and strategize. And he has grown that to a huge extent, starting with maybe six people at the first deal.

Yeah, huge deal. It’s like 50 people now. Right.

Just a short period of time, under a year. So let’s go there thinking about these networking groups. And some people work so hard to get traction, and here he is coming out of the gate rocking it.

Why do you think think that is? I think he’s done a good job, for example, you know, getting involved in the groups we’re in. I see Liam at Edge Insights, I believe, is where I met Liam first. I see Liam at LGBTB supporting, you know, Dan, Dan, Dan the payroll man.

Dan Macedonado and James Cobbler. You know, I see Liam now in the chambers. He’s just joined that, you know, he’s out there.

His son leaders. He’s always had sun leaders, obviously, which is great. Which is probably where I really met Liam if I want to.

We’re thinking back, but he’s doing it. He’s out there in the community. He also is doing a lot of charity out of that too.

So where you have socialized strategize, for example, his huge give back is the Ronald McDonald House. So he sets up raffles at these networking groups to donate money. And then he actually is now, you know, one Wednesday a month, you know, cooking dinner with a big group of people for all of the parents of the Ronald McDonald House, which is cool.

So I love the tie in too. I think that’s something he gets. That’s something I get.

That’s something you get. That’s something a lot of us get. You need the tie into community.

It can’t just be networking for the sake of, you know, the surface that it is. It needs to be deeper. And I think the give back and the reinsertion of that into the community is a huge tie in and something we should all tie each of these into.

Brilliant. Let’s drill down on that a little bit because I think that’s spot on. And we’re really onto something here then.

So we talk about these networking groups. You and I have been in a ton of them, and we enjoy some more than others. They all have their merits, but I find the ones that are.

That I really resonate with are exactly the ones you’re speaking to that go a little bit beyond this transactional sort of process. And I think there are some businesses that are designed for and Thrive in a more transactional sort of lead generated networking. But that’s not what you and I are doing at all.

And that’s not what Liam’s created. It’s not what Roger’s created at the edge. It’s not what SunLeaders is.

So let’s talk about this rooted in the community and this networking process. I look at networking sometimes as a foul word. It annoys me.

Yeah. What is the right way to do this? The right way as in what is the right way for you to individually find the place where you’re going to spend your time or the right way to run one? Well, I think it’s connected more to your overall thought process of rooted in the community. It’s more than networking, isn’t it? We’re not just trying to meet people, we’re trying to move people.

Absolutely. And so I mean that’s the whole idea about being served people and serve people. Absolutely.

And keep people in the community that work and live here now. Right. That’s tying it all in.

And it’s, and it’s really, you know, the whole idea, I think that is missed at a lot of networking groups just because it is very transactional is really the family that kind of emerges out of this and the fact that, great, now we are all recommending each other because we are all a little more invested in each other now and we all want to see each other stay here. We want to thrive together. Right.

So I think that’s a huge part of it is, you know, one, getting everybody on board with almost our own culture that we’re creating outside of the norm. Right. Two, making people feel extremely welcomed into that culture.

So now they’re going to be a part of it. And then three, as we start, you know, building up revenue and doing well and all this great stuff, what’s the give back? Right. And that’s the rooted part of it.

And there are so many ways to give back, but that’s kind of my game plan. Right. And how I think that a lot of us feel.

Right. So Green Oak Lending, you are in the mortgage industry by trade. That’s how you make your living.

How does your overall philosophy with where we’re looking at rooted in the community? And we’ll talk about this other project, you know, you and I are doing in just a second. How does that transfer over to your company culture? We talked about it yesterday. And how you envision your career moving forward over the next 20, 30, 40 years.

Great questions. So it directly translates Green Oak Lending Group, our mantra Almost is rooted in the community. Right.

And you know, as a smaller boutique brokerage, our main goal is to really serve the client. You’re not a number. We’ve come from places, both my business partner and I, that are great companies but very transactional.

You’re working a lot of hours, you don’t really get to know the person. You’re not really invested here. It’s a lot different because we have that control.

So with the client experience, it’s going to be very different. As everybody’s going to be local. We’re going to take it one step further.

Make sure that you know all the people around you that as you move into the community you have at your disposal. Like I give a pamphlet each time and I’ll have different people. Hoi companies, a plumber, this or that right there.

Here’s the people we trust. You’ve had a great experience with us through the whole thing. We want you in the community.

And here’s some people in the community that can also help you with these things. If they come up reminding people to do the little things like your homestead exemption, for example, for your taxes to cap, those. Not a lot of people think about that.

When you’re buying a home, a lot goes into it. So at the same time we have that going with the clients. Our culture is rooted in any community we’re in.

We have nine loan officers all over metro Detroit area and each loan officer is rooted in their community. We have a police officer for example, and Warren who does a lot with police and first responder loans. He’s super passionate about it because it’s what he’s done for his job for over a decade.

Right. So that’s a huge part. We want to support him.

We have Jess Ford who is in Detroit, which is an awesome town if you’ve never visited, but she’s working on a ton down there for grant programs and first time home buyer things that don’t have to be paid back that will actually impact the client and keep them there. Right. Without having some silent second attached to it.

So all these folks that we’ve brought on are already bought into our culture. They’re already part of the family. And what we like to do is then look at and go, great, how can we help in your community? So that way we can reach all of our team members.

I’m going to bookmark St. Pete and what we’re doing here. We’re going to talk a little bit more about Detroit. Detroit is a city that’s gone through this remarkable sort of evolution, hasn’t it? It has.

How much time did you spend in Detroit? So I worked in Detroit for two and a half years. I mean, I played in Detroit for about a decade before moving down here. I grew up in metro Detroit, Birmingham, Michigan.

So. So you saw the. The kind of the down cycle.

Oh, yeah. I mean, 34 years I spent in the Detroit area. So.

Yep. Okay, so tell me, when is the last time you were back? Last September. Okay.

Are we doing it right in Detroit? Oh, it’s impressive. It is, isn’t it? Extremely impressive. And I’ve never been, but I know only from reading and listening to it.

And that took a good 20 years to rebuild. Am I right or wrong? Yeah, it was a good 20 years. But I mean, really, actually, over the.

Honestly, over the past 14, it was once Dan Gilbert and Quicken Loans got to downtown and then started flooding the city and building the city and buying buildings and helping and doing all of that. That’s when it really started taking off. So I was a part of that.

So we actually. I was in Livonia, Michigan, for the first month and a half when I started, and May 10th of 2010, and then by August, we were fully moved to downtown Detroit. Right.

And it was amazing being in the city that, you know, we were told as kids you might want to stay out of. And it’s like, wait, no, this is an awesome city. This is amazing.

Great culture. And then to watch that, it was like a renaissance. I mean, the entire shift over the past 14 years is absolutely incredible.

Any idea what a home runs in Detroit? Starter home in Detroit now? Oh, I mean, you know, I mean, you can probably. I mean, if you’re. If you’re looking like in the main downtown area, you know, anywhere from Florida, you know, you have.

You have penthouse condos down there at 1.2 million now. Right.

There’s such a range. It’s. It’s like a city, you know, it’s a.

Like a large city. Yeah, exactly. So, all right, so Detroit, we have the cycle.

It goes down, it comes back up, and I’m connecting a lot of that. But just correct me if I’m wrong, because I talk about this a lot. I think about this a lot.

The shift of the American dream. American dream used to be homeownership. This is something you are absolutely on the front lines of.

Is that one of the things that refueled Detroit? Do you think the American dream in home ownership did that rekindle kind of the economy of Detroit? It did a nice job, actually. I mean, if you look at it, I mean, for example, companies like Rocket and these larger companies use their money to create a lot of opportunity, not to mention hiring. Right.

So again, you know, now when all of a sudden you have thousands of employees that you’re able to hire and offer medical benefits and offer 401k matches to that, don’t necessarily need a college degree to sell a mortgage, they’re going to train you their way anyway. So this created a ton of opportunity for a ton of folks to again, then stay where they want to stay. Right.

So it was very. He did the same thing in Cleveland as well. I mean, very similar.

You ever go to Cleveland? Now, it’s. I have been there. That’s another just amazing thriving place now.

So obviously the labor market leads homeownership. And it used to be the car market. Right.

It’s Detroit. It’s the Motor City. Exactly.

But now it’s a mortgage city. Like most mortgage companies are headquartered in Detroit or the Detroit area. Right.

Most large lending institutions. So where New York Stock Exchange in New York has all of the financial advisors, Detroit’s got all the mortgage bankers and brokers. Crazy.

I don’t think we can Compare Detroit and St. Pete, two totally different cities and cultures. But what I think we can draw a parallel to is the cycle, the economic cycle of a city. So you saw that downturn, and now for here we are going back to our bookmark, St. Pete.

We’re really on the upswing here, aren’t we? We are. It’s incredible here. And this is why I personally get a little bit, you know, are we growing too fast or is this healthy growth? Can we define what healthy growth is? And then getting to your and my work together.

How do we define community and how do we keep everybody engaged? I’ve been in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, and I’ve seen all those cities kind of grow in an unhealthy way. It’s got its cycle. Where do you think we’re at in St. Pete? Think St. Pete could experience that same unhealthy cycle if we’re not careful? Right.

Like, it’s a pivotal part. I mean, you know, a lot of times a lot of money comes into a city and it’s very good. And, you know, it has a lot of pluses, such as providing jobs and all of this great stuff.

Right. Tax breaks at the same time, who’s getting pushed out that now can’t afford to live here? You know, those people are working here as well. And you know there’s going to be an affordability issue, you know, there will be.

So how did you define. Once upon a time, people were kind of worried to live in Detroit. There weren’t jobs there, and it was kind of rough and housing was affordable.

And now it sounds like maybe it’s going back up to where affordable housing can be used there. Maybe it’s not affordable. We have that same discussion in all metropolitan areas.

We have the discussion right here in St. Pete. Affordable housing. How would you, in your industry define affordable housing in St. Petersburg, Florida? So tough one, right? Geography.

I mean, the geography. Maybe I don’t know as well being down here yet, but just seeing what I’ve seen just in St. Petersburg alone, I mean, there’s. I’m not seeing a ton of affordable housing downtown, for example.

Right. Like, I don’t know your experience, but I feel these places a rent went through the roof, like to pull it back after 2. 2020.

Everybody wanted to move to this area from all these states. Right. I mean, everybody.

You and I are transplants. We are. Well, I came in 2018, so I feel like I, you know, you know, grandfather myself in.

But 2018? Yeah, like six years. Grandfather, grandfather, half a decade old now here. All right.

Over. But. But no, they did.

We had like, for example, first quarter of 2021, like a half of million people move to our area alone, St. Pete, Clearwater, Tampa, which is insane to think about. That’s a lot of people moving down to an area that hadn’t seen. I mean, it’s a vacation area.

You come down here once a year. You don’t come down here to live. Right.

So that was huge. So then rents went through the roof, and then apartments went up like hotcakes everywhere. Right? Everywhere.

We had a shortage. Yeah. I mean, it was insane.

And then they had them all filled, and then rents are going between now 2500 and 7500 to be in the area. And that’s for like a two, two and not a. Right.

And it’s like interest rates at the time were extremely high. We’re seeing those come down now, which is awesome at the time, you know, I mean, you were closer over an 8% interest rate depending on. On homes down here that gained what, 130, 150% in value, you know, in equity in the home in a very short time, too.

So it was a frenzy for people to move down, which makes it very tough, too, because most areas, you know, people live there, but they don’t necessarily. It’s not like a dream place to live, like Florida’s like the retirement center of the world. Right, right.

Where that’s a goal that you would usually have after retirement. Now it’s flooding in because everywhere else is so expensive. La, New York, extremely expensive.

Right. So this is still cheap compared to that. So where does that leave us? That leaves us with not a lot of room for affordable housing when you can make this amount of money and this amount of people want to be here.

Do you think the government ever has a responsibility to provide some form of rent control or kind of get involved in that. That process of affordable housing? I don’t know. I mean, they’re involved in a lot as it is already.

Right. And it’s like, you know, I mean, there probably is something set up. I don’t know anything about the commercial side or how apartments, you know, management companies are setting up, how they’re going to rent it or what that market rent is.

But like in our world, for example, on an investment property. Yeah. We use what’s called a 1007 rent schedule to determine what we are going to get for future.

Future rent. Right. So, you know, what they’re doing is essentially pulling rental comps in the area and going, you went for this, you rent for this, you rent for this, you rent for this.

That’s about right. You’re going to average this. That’s what we’re going to allow you.

So there is control on our end. Yeah, but it doesn’t really control it. It actually just kind of offsets.

So nobody. I mean, there is no control on our end. So I doubt there is.

Maybe. I don’t know. It’s a tough one, man.

Like. And should there be? I mean, I. That gets into a lot, right, like, because, you know, you could say, yeah, we need rent controlled in these areas, for example, but other areas, I mean, you know, if somebody’s willing to pay ten grand to live in a penthouse condo a month in downtown St. Pete, you’re not going to rent control. That shouldn’t.

I mean, absolutely not. No. So that comes down to areas that need to be affordable, but then like, that comes out to.

Do you want that to be one area? Seems kind of like redlining. Well, this is going to. I was just going to go in that direction.

So. Right. Like, there’s.

There’s a ton, you know, where my head goes, there’s a ton. Like, you can’t do that. That’s ridiculous.

Right, right. And it’s like, what’s the solution? Hey there. I’m Joy Rose, the founder of the Museum of Motherhood.

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What’s the solution? Okay, so you, you and I are working on this project together. We thrive. We partnered with this center for Health Equity.

It was eye opening for me. I think you already had a little bit of head start on the background of it, but there’s a significant gap. It was, we just, you just mentioned redlining.

And so I look at that, I’m thinking, okay, some people aren’t able to stay in this community anymore. I can tell you that Diane and myself deliberately left Seattle because we were growing a family and we couldn’t afford to live there in the way we wanted to live. We came to Florida.

Central Florida was affordable. Now we’re on the older side of our family swing, so we can kind of get into the, the areas like St. Pete that only two people can, you know, you don’t have to support two people. Yep.

But I digress. I’m talking about redlining, generational wealth keeping roots in the community. We are pushing families out now.

So you and I sat with a lovely group of people at center for Health Equity and we had third generation, fourth generation people from St. Pete, but I think that’s rare. Do you think it’s important to a community to have these generational people in the community? Well, it’s extremely important. Right.

I mean, that’s what creates longevity in the community. Right. You have traditions that come out of that that are passed on.

I mean, there’s a lot that comes out of traditions, right? Yeah. I mean, healthy and unhealthy traditions. Healthy and unhealthy.

Of course. Right. And that’s where we’re going with our project.

How do we recognize and define that which is healthy for a community? And I think I’m just at this old age really starting to learn a little bit about what that means and I’m not smart enough to have the answers. Talk to me about. In the shadows or clouds of my mind.

I was aware of redlining, but it really just hit me like a brick in, in the face. When we were at the center. Talk to me about the concept of redlining.

What is it? Yeah. So you have two types of redlining. You have redlining and you have reverse redlining.

So redlining is exactly what it sounds like. I pull up A metropolitan map of St. Pete, for example. And I draw a red circle around an area and I say, don’t lend there or I say make sure we’re predatory lending here and jacking, you know, do all this crazy stuff to make sure nobody can afford to live here.

Right. So it’s literally blocking someone that wants to be in a neighborhood from being in a neighborhood. Reverse redlining at the same time is now drawing that circle around areas where you only want a certain clientele to actually live.

Right. So yes, here we’re going to offer better deals and get the people we want here, but at the same time keep out those that we don’t. Right, right.

That went away. That was addressed in 2008 after the crash. We had a ton of guidelines put in place at that point.

For the first time in the mortgage industry. It was really never regulated. So now it’s extremely heavily regulated.

And for example, if you’re caught redlining, that is a huge violation. You get jail time. They’re going to shut you down.

There’s fines, there’s penalties. Does it still happen? Yeah, because you hear about it in continuing education all the time. I see.

I mean, it’s crazy, right? And the state of Florida, I mean, if we’re throwing out stats, last year made up 86% of the mortgage fraud. No way. In this state.

So it’s like there’s a lot in this state that needs to be worked on. Right. As far as all that goes.

So I didn’t see myself asking this question, but given your knowledge and kind of how I know you, do you see yourself getting more involved on a political level or committee level or, you know, beyond educating communities, do you see yourself ever going in that direction? Maybe, eventually, yeah. I’m doing so much right now. But it’s funny, like, for example, I talked to Bella Wood from Flagship bank, that’s my relationship manager over there.

I love Bella, she’s the best. And we talk all the time because we discuss, you know, things like grant versus down payment being, you know, something that may be harmful to a client down the road instead of just doing an actual grant program and how we could get on a committee in the future or pool our own money and get a group of companies together, banks and lenders together that say, hey, you know, every year we’ll give X amount, 50 grand, 100 grand, you start off small and build it up to, you
know, anyone that meets these requirements. As a first time homebuyer underserved area, we want to make sure we help you all of that.

Right. So we would have control over that because it would be our money. And that’s kind of what.

That’s where I would like to head to. It’s like money is a tool. You need it.

The more of it you have, the more things like that you can now do because you can give that money to causes that you believe in. So eventually I would love to be at that level and maybe I will be, you know, who knows? I think we’re doing cool stuff down here. Yeah, I’m enjoying it immensely.

So let’s talk a little bit about this Together We Thrive project you and I are doing. And I directly connect it to Rooted in the community. So I just think it’s magnificent the way your brand is coming together.

And it’s not that you’re intentionally building a brand. You are following your passions and it’s developing into this really nicely shaped sort of service based process, which is remarkable for somebody in the mortgage industry because so much of. Because, I mean, you and I know that I have a real estate background.

I was an appraiser for a long time, dealt with hundreds of mortgage people in the mortgage industry. And that’s why I. I enjoy you so much. Because I find you to be different than the mold.

So rooted in the rather. Together We Thrive. Let’s talk about that a little bit.

What are we doing? Why are we doing it? What do we hope to get out of this? Yeah, I’m extremely excited about this. Me too. So Together We Thrive is a panel that we’re putting on at the center for health equity on September 26th.

Coming up here, it’s Thursday. Do we have the right date? Is that right? Thursday. Okay.

September 26th. What is it? From 8:30 until noon? Yeah, that’s. You got it.

Yep. Which is going to be extremely exciting. So 8:30 to noon 34 hours.

8:30 to noon 30. Yeah. Yep.

Because we’re going to feed you if you come, which we want you to come and enjoy. Right. So of course we’re going to give you food, but it’s going to be awesome.

So Roger Curlin helped us immensely with this. He is the executive director of the Edge district. Also your second guest.

My second guest. Right. So guys, go back, listen to that episode.

Keep going. Yes. And so he helped us get the other five main districts of St. Pete together.

The executive directors. We’re going to have six that will be talking about inclusivity, not just in business, but in the full community. Right.

How we’re all going to not just survive this, but how we can all thrive together, what programs we can come up with. Who knows, right? But I mean, it’s going to be a great place to get that topic started on how are we going to actually be a community and move forward as a community of human beings together? How are we going to help each other do this? And I think that opening just that discussion that they’re going to have is going to really change anyone who’s there. Yeah, it’s going to be
surprisingly diverse with these six, just even the six district heads, because they are covering different parts of our town.

And I’m hoping it brings a lot of exposure to some of these different districts that people haven’t thought that much about yet. Particularly this 49th fusion one is exciting to me. The vision for 49th fusion is going to be pretty cool.

So, yeah, that’s going to be great. So lunch is provided. It’s free if you come join us.

And registration will be on the center for Health Equity website. Yeah, within a week. Yeah, within a week.

But I think the reason we started thinking about why this was necessary, first of all, you want to educate people in your business. And then we thought, well, let’s dig a little bit deeper. How can we really invest in our community beyond this transactional thought process? And there’s little cracks in what we do, aren’t there? We notice it, you and I, when we show up to some of these networking groups.

We say it’s diverse and inclusive, and I believe it is in that we have the invitation out there to people. But I don’t think we’re making people feel welcome. That’s the difference that I want to make.

I want to be able to walk anywhere in my city. I want citizens of the city to be able to walk anywhere they want without a second glance. I know that’s idealistic, but that would be glorious.

I want people to be able to spend their money wherever they want. I want generations to be able to stay here time and time again. I don’t want to hear that they got pushed out because they couldn’t make a living here.

So having said all that, we need economic drivers in our community. You talked about what was Detroit’s. What is.

What is our economic driver here in St. Pete? What do you think our economic drivers down here? Yeah, we have a lot of major companies that are headquartered down here that are driving a lot of that. We do. We certainly got tourism.

That’s a big deal. Tourism is a huge deal. The arts are particularly big in St. Pete, which is cool.

I love It, I mean that’s one of the reasons I think it’s a cultural thing for us. Right. Like that’s a part of our culture and something everyone can embrace.

That’s a great thing. We’ve got sports, oddly enough, and the rich history and so we just hadn’t. Not we.

I’d had nothing to do with it. But our baseball team just really committed to being here for a long time. But I didn’t realize the history of baseball here is like a hundred years.

It precedes Major League Baseball. So we really do have a rich history of baseball, specifically in St. Petersburg, Florida. But they’re a huge part of our community now, aren’t they? Yeah, huge.

And so we’ve got this big project going on that I don’t really pay much attention to. I probably should. Yeah, it’s going to be huge.

I mean they’re putting the gas plant district is the raise Hinds project. So stadium is going to be completely brand new and amazing. And then I mean you have a multi use area going in that right now.

Desolate parking lot. Right. Green space and affordable housing and you know, spots for businesses and I mean it’s going to be an incredible change.

Yeah, you know, it’s a huge driving factor, I think and a catalyst over the next. This is something that’s going to drive everything for the next 20 years here. Right.

So for you and where you and Kim are at and little wags that come along, what do you want to see? What do you want to see in the community that’s not here yet? What’s not in our community that you think? Man, I really would like that. I don’t know, man, like I love our community every day and I’m super excited for the, for the new stadium. I think that’s going to bring in a lot.

There are a ton of events and everything else going on here all the time. I mean there’s so much to do. I’m so happy here.

What do you know about that? So hard to think of. What do you know about the school system? Anything? Oh, my wife knows a lot about it because she’s a Floridian So she’s from St. Pete. So.

Yes. Somehow I missed that. I didn’t know she was.

Or I forgot that she was native. I didn’t know. Yeah, she ended up going to Shore Crest for middle school.

I’ll be darn on a scholarship because she’s so smart and then. Yeah, so I mean she’s been around so. But.

So that’s an interesting question. Too, though. Right? Like, she went to St. Pete High, had a great time there, swam there.

Wow. Ended up going out of Florida, University of Florida, and then Stetson for law. So she had a great time going through there.

We would love that. We’re going to bookmark schools. I want to come back to that.

She knows a lot about the schools. How did you two meet? Oh, man. You want to.

That’s a whole nother topic for a whole podcast. No, I’m kidding. But there is.

So I was down here, weird enough, on a broker visit when I was an Account Executive at UWM In February of 2018, I visited an account down here. I met her while I was down here through the processor’s wife. Right.

Because they were at the University of Florida together in the same sorority. You just think you said that was a cool girl. I’ll probably never see her again.

I moved down here in June of 2018, and we were dating by August of 2018. Let’s go. There you go.

I must have left a pretty good imprint, you know? All right. She says she deported me. No, she said she imported me from Detroit.

That’s awesome. All right, so let’s go back to her bookmark. Does she feel confident in the schools here? She must, because she’s got a pretty good experience with it.

Absolutely. Yeah. At our income level, where we were at with five kids, we were always in public schools, and then we did magnet schools in Florida, which I think are exceptional, But I’m a firm believer in public schools.

I think the education is there for you to get. We just have to, as parents, encourage the kids to participate in that process. And then we, as parents, have to participate, and they help educating our kids in that process.

It is there for you, man. It’s. There it is.

Okay, so let’s talk a little bit about kind of a day in the life of Wags, because I know you’ve got a lot of different interests. You do a lot of things. I know you’re up early.

I know that you used to do competitive weightlifting. Correct? Yeah. And now you’ve kind of transitioned from competitive weightlifting, and you do mace flow.

It’s flow and cardio and stretching. So talk us through that kind of health journey and why it’s changed and. And where you’re at now, because it seems like you’re in a really good space now.

Yeah, absolutely. So I spent since I was 15 lifting weights. Right.

And I turned that into powerlifting, and it was very fun for a long time, and I could move a lot of Weight. And that was really cool for the time I was doing it. And then.

And what happens is your body starts Falling apart at 35. I noticed. Yeah.

And all the injuries and everything starts. So I had to figure out a new. Something new.

Right. Because obviously I couldn’t keep doing that. I kept getting injured.

I’m like, this is. This is a moment where my body is literally saying, hey, I’m shouting at you, cut it out. We need to change.

Like, I’m not telling you anymore. You got to stop. And like, you got to listen to your body.

Can’t keep shutting them up. So I did. And it was weird.

I went to a bachelor party with my. My buddy Tony’s bachelor party in Alabama and his buddy Francis from Louisiana shows up with this four headed quad mace and like a jug of alcohol. And I’m like, this guy likes to party.

Clearly this is a great bachelor party already. And like, we hit it right off because he looks like he’s straight out of Lord of the Rings and he’s got a mace with him. So I’m swinging this thing with him the entire bachelor party.

We’re doing this. And I was sold. I got back, I ordered them, I started going after that.

This is all I do now. I do my mace flow, I do my cardio, I do my stretching, I see my chiro, I do my massage. And it’s all about health.

Right. Like to me now, it’s longevity. That’s where my focus has gone.

I don’t need to be all these things. I’m pretty okay with who I am. I just need to make sure that I’m here and I’m able to do all the things I need to do.

Yeah. For as long as I can. Right.

I’m in the same space. And I’ve got a few years on you. Probably about 20 years or something.

But I mean, for me, life used to be about vanity, pushing weights, looking good, and now I just want to be able to hold grandkids and that sort of thing, you know? All right, we’re starting to kind of wind down. We got about 10 minutes. I want to get into some of your passion projects.

I know park center is huge. You just helped host and run a bowling tournament. Let’s talk about park.

Let’s talk about that a little bit. And then some other things you really feel passionate about that you want to share. Yeah, for sure.

Park center for disabilities is a huge passion of mine. I ended up getting involved in the L and L group that you and I were in together with Lisa Emery, who we both love to do. The best freaking group at the chamber.

It’s awesome. Ever. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, great people. Nothing but great people out of that group.

She’s amazing. She’s originally from Detroit. She ran marketing for the Detroit Free Press forever.

And I’m like. So we hit it right off. Wow.

Yup. So I’m like, you’re special and I think that you’re going to be somebody in my life, you know? And then we all volunteered as a group. As you remember, Shovel on rocks.

It was great. We were out there in the heat. I sweat through like four shirts, but they kept giving me new ones.

I have all these volunteer shirts now. I’m like, they’re equipped me with an outfit for something. I know they are.

But yes, we got into it. I loved it. I got on the next gen board with Alexis Godzcu, Alexis Gilbo and a few other people.

And, you know, from there it just became exciting to start the mini philanthropy part of it. Right. So that was very cool.

We just did strike for park on the weekend at Seminole Lane. You were there, which I. Super success. Some leader shout out they sponsored.

You guys are amazing. Huge success. I mean, like, I think the most successful part of that was like looking around and realizing that 85% of the people there I personally know from all of our networking groups that’s very out and showed up and donated.

I mean, it was. It was an emotional thing to see all that, honestly, you know. And I’ve also taken over the.

The Blues Fest for Park Disability Center. So February? Yeah, maybe. Sure.

We’re going to get back to people on that date. Yeah. I’ve never been to, but I’m going.

It’s amazing. It was cool. I’ll be running the VIP tent and now all of it.

So I don’t know where I’ll be. We get some, say killer artists. We get some killer acts.

Incredible. Oh, yeah. Like, I mean, it was unreal.

I get to sit there and help out park and collect money and. Yeah. Then just enjoy music, you know.

It was great. I always talk, you know, to people about two types of payment. And I particularly think it’s important when we’re thinking about an entrepreneurial journey.

But I think about it for all human beings. Payment for your soul, payment for your pocketbook. We have to survive in capitalism.

It’s the system we got. But we want to connect that to something that drives us forward. And that’s exactly what you’re doing.

That’s why park’s so important to you. Now, we also, you and I, serve together on Sunken Gardens Forever Foundation. Right.

Do. Which is awesome. And it’s something I don’t talk about enough.

And I should talk about it more because we’re just talking about rooted in the community. Sunken Gardens is a gem. It’s been there for how long? I don’t know.

Since 1930s. Forever transitioned from, like this, well, a personal estate. Then it went to a roadside attraction.

Now, I think it’s a lot more than a roadside attraction, for sure. You and I were brought on the board to try to build partnerships in the business community. And what we want is we want this to be a place for people, for the business community to do business.

We want them to bring their guests, walk through the park, enjoy that experience. So we have what we call a business partnership program. And if you, anybody listeners, you’re interested in that, reach out to Mike or myself or Wags and myself, and we’ll, we’ll, we’ll get you some information on that.

But I’m excited about that as we move forward. What else do we have that you are involved in that we should talk about? Well, I’ll say on the, on the Forever foundation side of it, too. Just a comment.

I’m excited to be not only part of the Forever foundation board because it’s not just us, it’s also Doug Jackson and it’s Dan Master Donato on there. Yep. We’ve got Tess, we’ve got Mallory, who’s amazing.

Ted’s kind of running the whole thing for us. Great people all around to be surrounded by, number one. And the garden is beautiful.

I think a lot of us get extremely stressed out. I know I do throughout the week. And to have a spot where you can now go and sit or you can take a client to and meet.

And now you’re surrounded by flowers and beauty and it’s quiet and it’s calm. And there’s something to that from a mental health standpoint that we lack, right? Absolutely. Like, usually it’s the concrete jungle in the office that we’re in.

To be able to pull yourself into that is worth it. And to be able to share that with your employees as a partner or anything that you send, you know, one of your employees, family’s there for the weekend. Great.

And they can check out, you know, the exhibits and the flamingos. There is so much there and it’s been around forever. And it’s one of those things that when you talk about how we thrive together, that’s something that needs to thrive as well.

Because Generationally, it’s been here forever. And it is a huge part of St Petersburg. Absolutely.

You know, huge part of it. So, yeah, I’m with you. I love being on there.

I think we’re going to do big things. Picking up in 2025, like, you know, really. But just really gaining steam.

Really gaining steam. So very happy about that. Other things I’m involved in, man.

So a few things. So we’ve got Halloween on Central, for example. That’s right.

I got a few things to go. Yeah. So that’s going to be a big one.

So Roger Curleth again, getting a lot of shout outs on this podcast. This is something that he does. Pride Topia.

Yep. And he does this amongst a thousand other things. But this is a huge one.

Sponsorship levels for this are, you know, from very affordable to if you want to go wild. But this is something that you will be able to get seen by the entire community because everybody wears costumes and they dress up their dogs. Right.

And you walk down. I went to this last year with my Great Dane and my Corgi and we’re like, how is this Great Dane going to do, Sweetheart? Number one did great. Very happy.

But I mean, hundreds of people and you’re bumping into everybody. We’re talking thousands of people. Thousands.

Yeah, yeah, Thousands of people. Because it stretches all the Central, takes up two districts. It’s incredible.

Incredible. So that’s a huge one that’s coming up. And then we’ve got the Good Burger Awards in the Chamber coming up, which is another really big one.

So that’s going to be on November 13th at the Floridian, which is going to be huge. Yeah. And it’s indoor, unlike last year when we had to move it just because of the rain.

Got transplanted. Yeah, yeah. So this is.

This rain or shine, it’s going down, which I love to see. All right. So Greg Potter just put me on the board for that as well.

Nice. So I do want to say the sponsorship level is there from very, very affordable to. If you want to go crazy and seen by everybody in the world.

Right. But that’s something that you can contact directly at the Chamber or reach out to me and I’ll drop my information at some point in this. Now, speaking of the Chamber, you’re also an ambassador there.

I am. And you’re doing a lot of work. That’s another thing.

That’s a really good point. So I’m the director of the Ambassadors now. I’m going to be the second chair, which will be what Greg is currently Next year.

And I’ll be the head ambassador in 2026, which Doug Jackson currently is. Right. And Doug and Greg have set this up in such a cool way where now as for example, as Doug transitions out next year and Greg steps up into the head ambassadorship, Doug stays on it to mentor that for the year.

So. Perfect. Then you constantly keep that going and it’s great.

Right. I think we’re making a lot of progress there. I think.

I think this is probably the best chamber I have ever been associated with. Yeah. You know, in any state.

It’s doing it right. It’s doing it right. It’s doing something way different than the norm.

So that all comes into this beautiful community, making a community. The chamber has done a great job building a community within the community. They really have.

But they also have a lot of outreach programs that tries to really. In fact, the chambers. How I became aware of the center for Health Equity because they.

We held. Held an event there. So it’s pretty cool.

It’s awesome. And greenhouse and the greenhouse. Right, John, the greenhouse is huge.

So we’re just about out of time. Anything else you want to talk about before we wrap it up? I’m good. All right.

I’ve talked a lot. I feel absolutely pleasure. I learned a lot and I spend time with you.

So it’s. This is. It’s a great opportunity to learn more.

Heck yeah. Go ahead and tell people again who you are, what you do, and then I’ll close it out. Sure.

So again, Mike Wagner or Wags. Apparently how everyone knows me. Green Oak Lending Group Residential mortgage brokerage.

Come to us for all of your lending needs. Awesome. All right, well, we’re going to wrap it up once again.

My name is Eric Nutting, the growth coach of St. Petersburg, Florida, and we’re here at Naiman Creative Studios. My thanks to Jordan for keeping us on track here. My thanks to Wags for being a guest.

I always enjoy my time together and having that chance to gonna share a conversation. And then I do wanna remind everybody that we have this panel discussion coming up together. We thrive.

And I encourage you to get involved, reach out to us and we would love to see you there. And if you do make it, let us know that you heard about it on this podcast. Until next time, take care.

Be safe. Satan. Sam.